For coaches that don't rotate positions

If your goal is just to always win thanks to your clever player positioning strategy, just bring on strong guest players and then position all regular players on the bench. Win every game that way.

Kids develop a love of the game at a young age by scoring and playing offense. Coaches like you take that away by forcing kids to only play defense and not allow them to experience the full game. My son goes in the backyard and practices dribbling and scoring into the goal. Seems cruel to leave the goal in the backyard if coaches tell him he must never go near the goal or shoot into it because that is reserved for weak players, he is just there to defend in games.

You are encouraging weak players that can't defend to remain weak players that can't defend. You are making the game boring for kids stuck in one position. You are showing the parents you are a terrible teacher because kids can only play one position.

How many kids would quit basketball if the coach say you must never shoot or cross half court? How many kids would quit baseball if they were never allowed to come up to bat or run the bases? Why should soccer be different? You're not supposed to focus on win-now in youth soccer. Parents must quit these teams with pigeonholing coaches.

Here's an idea, instead of hiding player's weakness, fix it? Why not consider winning to be all your players learn all the fundamentals of the game and enjoy playing instead of just the final score?

Top replies, most upvoted first

• (+11) If you think that football is about just scoring goals you don’t love football.
• (+11) OP will likely be back at some point complaining about losing all the time
• (+7) You’re new to this
• (+7) First game?
• (+6) Weaknesses aren’t hidden on defense, they’re hidden on offense. You don’t lose because of a weak offense, you lose because of a weak defense. (I am not advocating locking kids into positions at U10, I am just saying the premise ['only the best play offense'] of op's post is incorrect)
• (+5) My son loved defense as a kid and got involved in scoring from the back line. It is the best place for a player to develop. Is this your first year parenting a soccer player?
• (+4) 20+ year youth coach here. OP is right. That’s not to say you rotate every player into every position every game, but you’ve got to develop them over time so they get a sense of each position. At U10 I’ll set up 2/3 week rotations so both in practice and in games, kids get time in a position, then after that cycle, they all change. Does it look less pretty on week 1 every 3 weeks? Yup. But by the end of the season they’ve all developed enough to be ready to handle the next year in a better spot. I couldn’t give a crap what the record is in U10 as long as they all grew as individual players....
• (+3) I can understand this. My kid’s coach will rotate the players around often. Game to game and within the game. Would it be better from a winning standpoint to keep them all in the same position? Probably. But that stunts their development and possibly hunger for the game imo. My kid has been on several teams where they do not rotate and I can tell it sucks for the parents and kids who are buried on the defensive side simply because they are a weaker player. Defense is important and there’s no shame in playing it but it shouldn’t be treated as it is in youth soccer.
• (+3) All these parents complaining about their kids coaches - here is an idea, why don’t you coach? I volunteered to coach in rec, then took them to academy because I didn’t like how they were being ran. You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution…
• (+3) You’re making an assumption that none of their players want to play defense. I’ve coached for 15 years from grass roots through ECNL. The kids that go far in soccer are not the ones that played 5 positions. Center backs and defensive midfielders are gold dust and playing those positions can lead to scholarships, top level teams etc. People not understanding the sport and assuming defense is for the less talented kids are just as big a problem as those coaches hah prioritize winning over everything else
• (+2) Yup. Defense and midfield build the game of football. There are 11 players in adult football. Only 1 is a striker (in teams where there is even one). Fake 9s are common. The strongest players in football are midfielders. Natural strikers have other qualities and are rare.
• (+2) This sub takes everything too far. More of the "all the good players only play defense", "you dont lose because of offense" just patently untrue nonsense, I know in working out its call bro science, we need a term for it for youth soccer add that they shouldn't pass in U10 because they dont in Europe and that Europeans arent competitive till older ages in there too